We lost our sweet gentle border collie Jess, Sept 2002, it broke our hearts. She had been with us for 13yrs.  Such a friend and companion is so hard to let go.

She came to us at around 10months of age and we were her last hope of finding a family who would take her. I did not want a long haired dog *thought so much work and hair every where * also we had Benji a Labrador cross who was the apple of our eye and we also had Morky our cat, who immediately sized Jess up and ignored her, Jess of course was real interested but a quick swipe to the nose taught Jess her place.  We talked about keeping jess ,she was a real cutie and very timid ,in the end jess won and we took her into our family.
we had decided to sell our house and move ,then benji got ill and we had to let him go to sleep ,jess seemed to understand our heartbreak at losing benji he had been such a loving friend.
once we had settled into our other house i began to watch jess [i had time now ] . she was so frightened if we even raised our voices at her she wet herself ,hated being left alone and showed it by ripping the window dressing to shreds .we replaced them with blinds that rolled up so she couldnt get at them,very slowly her fear lessened and she quietened down .her and mork were the best of friends by this time ,Morky left us at 14yrs. for a long time jess looked for him on his favourite chair ,another  sad time for us all .. 

jess was a great friend and companion ,as she got older she got arthritis badly in her front legs ,then it spread to her back legs but always struggled gamefully to go for her walk ,now she had another friend skye [west highland terrier ] dont think she thought of skye as a dog she was so tiny , she put up with the little pest and was so gentle with her ..